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English: A frame from a screencast from the US House Financial Committee full committee hearing “An Examination of the Extraordinary Efforts by the Federal Reserve Bank to Provide Liquidity in the Current Financial Crisis which took place Tuesday, February 10, 2009, 1:00pm, 2128 Rayburn House Office Building. The frame shows Chairmen Ben Bernanke responding to a question posited by John E. Sweeney Full Committee (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The Federal Reserve announced plans to unleash more stimulus Thursday, in its third attempt at a controversial program to rev up the U.S. economy.

“The policy, known as quantitative easing and often abbreviated as QE3, entails buying $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities each month. The end date remains up in the air, as the Fed will re-evaluate the strength of the economy in coming months.

“The Fed is wasting no time. The purchases begin Friday and are expected to add up to only $23 billion for the remainder of September.

“The bond-buying policy “should put downward pressure on longer-term interest rates, support mortgage markets, and help to make broader financial conditions more accommodative,” the Fed’s official statement said.

“Meanwhile, the Fed will continue its existing policy known as Operation Twist. Together the two programs will add $85 billion in long-term bonds to the Fed’s balance sheet each month.

“In addition, the Fed also indicated that it plans to keep short-term interest rates at “exceptionally low levels” until mid-2015. Previously, the Fed had forecast rates would remain low until late 2014.

“The central bank’s main objective is to lower interest rates and mortgage rates in particular. By keeping rates low, the Fed hopes to fuel more spending and eventually, more hiring.

“The Fed has been trying to stimulate the economy for over three years now, and has exhausted its usual tool by keeping interest rates near zero since late 2008. Quantitative easing is an unconventional way of trying to lower rates further.

“But given that the unemployment rate has remained above 8%, the Fed is still not satisfied.

“The weak job market should concern every American. It imposes hardship on people and a waste of human skills and talents,” Fed ChairmanBen Bernanke said in a press conference later Thursday.”

It is not a secret that the U.S. government is funding Syrian rebels, who include members of Al Qaeda, but this may be the first time they have openly called for “two cheers” in praise of the radical Islamic Jihadists fighting against the Assad regime. I find it odd that the title is so complimentary, yet in the article it specifically says, “Of course, Syrian Islamists are no friends of the United States–merely the enemies of one of its enemies.” This is like smiling while delivering horrible news of betrayal. When I read that, I got this picture in my head of a woman smiling as she says to her friend “Let’s go celebrate your marriage with ice cream! Of course, your husband is cheating on you.” Backwards is forwards, up is down, wrong is right, logic is insanity.

“In March, he launched an ETF version of his popular Pimco Total Return Fund (PTTRX) – the world’s biggest mutual fund, with more than $260 billion in assets. The Pimco Total Return ETF (NYSE: BOND) quickly attracted $2.1 billion in total deposits and has outpaced the S&P 500 by more than 5% so far.

“But even bonds – both government-backed and corporate – can’t escape the realities of a no-growth economy.

“According to global economic trend forecaster Chris Martenson, a former VP of a Fortune 300 company, the historical growth rates investors have come to expect – in every asset class – are no longer mathematically possible.

“Right now, there are dangerous economic constraints,” he said, “mainly created by failed government policies, which show exponential growth in our markets is impossible.”

(Reuters) – U.S. regulators directed five of the country’s biggest banks, including Bank of America Corp and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, to develop plans for staving off collapse if they faced serious problems, emphasizing that the banks could not count on government help.

The two-year-old program, which has been largely secret until now, is in addition to the “living wills” the banks crafted to help regulators dismantle them if they actually do fail. It shows how hard regulators are working to ensure that banks have plans for worst-case scenarios and can act rationally in times of distress.

“Lawyers from The Rutherford Institute represented Brandon Raub during the three-hour hearing today at the John Randolph Medical Center and released a statement, saying Raub has been ordered to “up to 30 days’ further confinement in a VA psych ward” after “government officials againpointed to Raub’s Facebook posts as the sole reason for their concern and for his continued incarceration.”

“Both the FBI and Secret Service said Raub was not arrested or charged, but the Rutherford Institute statement points out that “if the police have put handcuffs on you and you’re being held against your will, that qualifies as an arrest.”

The agitation appears to be increasing among the media as President Obama continues to avoid taking questions from White House reporters. On Friday, Obama’s deputy press secretary parried a series of volleys from the White House press corps, all of whom wanted to know when the president would break his over-two-month streak of not formally answering their questions.

“I don’t have any scheduling announcements,” Earnest said. He contended that the press has actually “heard quite a bit” from Obama, who he said has been “talking to a number of reporters.” He also said that Obama had answered a question shouted at him at a bill signing from a White House reporter, and that the press had been able to air the president’s comments to

NBC’s Kristen Welker noted that Obama has been talking about things like his views on the song “Call Me Maybe.”